American Bulldogs

Wow!  It's been a year since I blogged anything.  And what a busy year it has been, we sold our home in New Hampshire, packed up nearly 30 years of stuff and moved 1000 miles to upstate South Carolina.  Selling, buying, moving out and moving in is quite an enterprise and not for the faint of heart.  But we did it and are in a really good place.  Life if starting to get back to normal, and although I have been painting (quite a lot actually), I haven't been very good at sharing.  That (hopefully) ends now.

Oil on stretched canvas16"x20"SOLD

American Bulldogs was a commissioned piece that arrived on my doorstep last October. Someone I had met in 2011 and shared a business card with, contacted me and needed this before Thanksgiving.  It was to be a gift for her nephew, a 3 time Iraqi war vet, who served as an EMT.  He is home now, thankfully, but does suffer from PTSD.  These dogs and cooking serve as his therapy.  What an honor to paint these happy delightful creatures.

I am happy to report that the end product was very well received and is hanging in a place of honor in his home.

Can I paint something for you?  If so, just contact me at PetPortraitsbyWendy@gmail.com.

Study "Apples Falling from a Basket"

Oil on canvas panel

9"x12"

NFS

Recently I received a complimentary copy of Art Review Magazine.  Although it had a few good articles, mostly it contained paintings for sale by various galleries. One of the paintings advertised for sale was "Apples Spilling From a Basket" by Adam Lehr, painted in 1903.  I decided to do a study.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Pumpkin Island Lighthouse

This past summer we took a cruise on a two masted schooner from the 1800's.  I took lots of photos.  This painting is of the Pumpkin Island Lighthouse with another schooner passing behind it.

The painting itself is 11"x14", oil on canvas panel.

When I posted the first image above, I thought I was done with this painting.  My husband convinced me that I was not.  I like his suggestions and feel they improved the overall painting.

54 Donald Street - work in progress

Way too much glare on this photo due to wet paint, but I promise a better one when it's done.

Early this spring, I had occasion to walk down a street where I usually just drive. This gave me the opportunity to admire the gardens and plantings along the way. This particular garden struck me because of the chair holding the bucket of geraniums, and the sun on the back wall. The chair was the same color as the wall, and I so wanted to remove it from the garden and paint it color that would show it off. But since it was not my garden, and I am sometimes a sensible human being, I just kept walking.

About a month later I went back with may camera and spent some time photographing the garden from the street. It had lots of wonderful elements in it like the boots and the planter off to the side, but as a painting it was going to need more.

Over the past few months, I have been observing gardens along the way and have grabbed quick camera phone snapshots of various elements that I think will work in making this garden still life. And as I paint, I have added items straight from my imagination, like the shrub on the right and the ivy on the left which I felt was needed to balance the painting. More flowers to come, more detail everywhere and a lot more time to be spent on developing shadows, reflections and highlights. But I though you might like to see that I am still painting. It's taking me longer as I am working on larger pieces and only get a couple of hours a few days a week.

My painting today was cut short by one female cat who jumped up and walked through the ultramarine blue paint. I thought I grabbed her in time, but when I put her down, I discovered that she was tracking dark blue paint with one paw. And of course, now she had to be caught, and the goop in between her toes was scaring her so she didn't want to be caught.

Thanks to help from hubby, he managed to capture her and hold her while I cleaned up the paint on the floors. Then it was off to the kitchen to try to get the paint off the cat. I knew I couldn't use turp, so I grabbed my container of Master's Brush Cleaner which is water based. After lots of soaping, scrubbing and rinsing we finally got to a point where no more paint was coming off on the towel, although her white fur is light blue on that foot. I was absolutely amazed how still she held during the entire process. Cats hate it when you touch their feet, and she doesn't like to be held for more than 30 seconds at a time. We gave her lots of praise when it was over, and she doesn't seem to be any worse for the wear. She also isn't trying to lick the foot, so I am comfortable that she won't be ingesting stuff that's bad for her from this adventure. And that's life here on the hill, one adventure after another.

Day Lily - Finally done!

I finally finished this painting, although I may need to photograph it one more time as the original is a bit lighter in color (the day lily is more yellow than orange). I am quite pleased with how it turned out.
If you have been following my blog, you will remember that I originally posted this on April 17th as a work in progress. You can see the original post here. To get the colors right, I put on many layers of glazing. There were times when I didn't think it would ever come together. Have I mentioned that patience is not my forte? That may be why I might be more suited to direct painting than this particular style. But the end result is amazing...the transparency in the colors and the glow that seems to come from the flower was worth the effort. Still, I'm not sure if I will do this on a regular basis, probably only when I am seeking a certain effect.

I have another painting on the easel now and this one is a real challenge. It's a garden still life inspired by a garden I saw when walking last spring. Of course, being who I am, my painted garden will have elements from the one I was inspired by, and things added as well. I have been busy taking reference photographs this week. Hopefully I'll have something to share relatively soon.

Thank you for dropping by, I hope you'll share your thoughts with a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

"Squeaker"

Last January on a business trip to St. Louis, I had the misfortune of getting very ill on the morning I was to fly home. An angel by the name of Kerry, whom I had met less than 72 hours earlier, became my salvation.

At first, she just offered to wait with me for the shuttle to the airport. When it became obvious that I was in no condition to fly, she got me checked back into a room, made sure I had emergency contacts and changed my airline reservations (on her credit card).

When I was once again able to think like a normal human being, I made sure she was reimbursed and heartily thanked for her kindness. But under the circumstances, I wanted to do more. So I asked her if I could paint something for her. She gave me two options, a landscape and this mountain lion, both involve precious memories for her.

Kerry, if you feel that this accurately represents "Squeaker", once it dries, I will pack it up and send it your way. Bless you for being the kind of person who steps up to help someone in need.

A time for giving thanks

In the U.S., November is a time where we give thanks for our bounties, and so many of us have many. I am thankful that I have everything I need in life, even if I don't have everything I want. I am also thankful that I know the difference between the two.

Today's offering is a Thanksgiving still life which I must quickly point out is a study of a much better painting called "Copper Pitcher and Apples and Mums" by Jane Puerini. Hers is so much better, it glows with life. I have never seen the original, it was a Thanksgiving card sent by our insurance company and one of my favorites over the year. It was the first one I have ever been inspired to copy.

I really enjoyed working on this painting. It came together fairly quickly on an 8"x10" canvas board. Trying to capture the reflections was challenging as was getting a real copper color to come through. I don't often do studies, although they are a great way to learn. I hope, if Jane Puerini sees this, she won't be too insulted that I copied her work. And Jane, if you do drop by, rest assured on the back of the canvas you are credited and this work will never be for sale. I did it solely for me.

So fellow artists-how do you feel about others using your works to create studies? I'd really like to hear from you.

Birds of a feather

This week the goal has to been to paint every day. Usually I paint at least 8"x10", and the larger the better but I had a few 4"x7" canvases all prepped so I thought I would try to paint something on them. Not feeling inspired to go outside and paint, I looked through my stash of photos - nothing there that inspired me either. So I resorted to browsing through books and calendars, something I haven't done since the early 90's.

In a coffee table book called "Maine", I found two photos of birds that I thought might be interesting to try. I have never tried to paint a bird before. The Black-capped Chickadee is the state bird and the photo was taken by Randy Ury, although since I plan to hang these two painting together, I reversed the image The Cedar Waxwing photo is credited to Alan D. Briere.

Neither of these photos will be sold, they are for my personal use only.

Painting every day is both a challenge and a lot of fun. I spent part of one afternoon outdoors where I had been invited to paint with someone I know, but for the most part, I painted alone in my studio with a lot of help from my three cats. Fortunately, they didn't walk in my wet paint and track it everywhere. I am always afraid that I will have to be cleaning oil paints off their fur and paws. Any tips?

Maine Sunset

A couple of years ago, my husband and I spent a relaxing week at a family cottage on a pond in Maine. He spent the week fishing and I spent it painting, reading, visiting local wineries and taking photographs. Always trying to capture the elusive family of loons who who were swimming right off shore the day we arrived and didn't ever get that close again until after we were all packed to leave. I swear they saw me put the camera in the car!

It was a great vacation. No telephone, no TV, no internet. Just a radio and the place entirely to ourselves. We were fortunate to watch a pair of bald eagles and each night I sat out on the porch and listened to the sounds off the water wishing it would never end. For some reason, even the bugs seemed reluctant to invade our vacation.

The painting above is from the shore of the cottage looking out to the point. The stairs lead to the cottage next door which was vacant while we were there. The sun is setting and another peaceful night is about to begin. Pour the wine, get out the cheese and crackers and join me on the porch, won't you? We'll watch the loons and their young ones swim off shore on their way home for the night.

Columbine

One summer one of these single columbine plants appeared in my garden. It was a surprise from nature, nothing I planted. Over the years it has spread randomly throughout the garden. I let them grow wherever they seed themselves.

My garden is not very ordered. I plant things and hope they will survive. If something pops up that I didn't plant, I am extremely grateful. And I always let it grow, sometimes even the weeds.

I don't have the heart to pull out the wild strawberries that have taken over the hill on the far side of the house. They provide food for birds, squirrels and chipmunks. I don't even begrudge the deer my shrubs in the winter, but I do wish that they would leave the Hostas alone in the summer. After all there is plenty more for them to eat. This year I planted some double pink columbines. I hope they like the garden as well as the wild purple ones.